


Photographic Evidence

by JollyCat



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 20:37:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10974888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JollyCat/pseuds/JollyCat
Summary: Sharing pictures of your childhood is part of any relationship...





	Photographic Evidence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shadowolfhunter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/gifts), [ayumie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayumie/gifts), [tolieawake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolieawake/gifts), [Corvus_Aconitum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvus_Aconitum/gifts), [TeamRenhardt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamRenhardt/gifts).



"You don't have any?"  
Sean is sleepy and his mind is more on the pleasure of the warm weight of Nick's body half on top of him than it is on conversation. He makes a vaguely negative noise. The warm weight shifts impatiently.  
"Hey, this is important. You really have no pictures at all of you as a child, none of you as a teenager, not even one at school or college? Not a single photograph?"  
Who knew Nick would be an after-sex conversationalist? Sean likes it though, these warm moments of intimacy, thoughts and confidences shared more easily than anytime else. He's puzzled by this particular conversation though.  
"I guess there could be some of me as a child somewhere but I have no idea where. When we left Kronenburg it was with just what we could carry and after that we were on the run. I don't think photographs were my mother's priority."  
"But later? You went to school, college - there must be pictures."  
Sean thinks. This is important to Nick, although he's not sure why, are there any?  
"Maybe. I'll look."

Sean looks but really knows there's nothing to find. There was the odd group photo from college, from the police academy, but he was always a blurred face on the back row - he'd always been tall, even as a child and any photographer would place him at the back of the group. If he'd ever even had copies they are long gone. And is the real reason for the lack of pictures that there has never been anyone before he would want to share memories of his past life with?

Nick has his own collection of photos and sits one evening rummaging through the carton, passing selections to Sean. A smiling, dark haired baby, a sturdy little boy with ridiculously long-lashed grey eyes. A triumphant 10 year old with a soccer trophy, an adolescent trying to look cool. Christmas, college, police graduation. And then there are ones of him with Juliette of course, including the one that used to stand on their dresser, the one whose glass Sean knows he smashed when he was in their house. That seems a long time ago. He wonders what that Sean Renard would have made of it if he could have known how things would turn out, him and Nick together, Juliette long gone from both their lives. He puts the pictures down, takes the carton from Nick's hands, pulls him around. He needs to look at and touch the real Nick for a moment, remind himself it's true. Sometimes he's scared this is just a dream but Nick looks at him with those same grey eyes, grins and moves into his kiss, warm and solid and his.

"So, still no photos of you."  
"No. Why does it matter so much?"  
"Well, you've seen me aged six in my Ewok pjs, it's only fair I should know what you looked like as a kid."  
"I certainly never had pajamas with Ewoks on. Or any item of clothing featuring furry animals."  
There's a pause, he can almost hear Nick thinking. Nick's head is tucked under his chin, Nick's strong, beautiful body pressed against him. It's a miracle that scares Sean at times, all that fear and mistrust and yet out of it - this. Nick.  
"Sean, we've only known each other as adults and we wasted so much time thinking we were meant to be enemies. I want you to know my past - not the big Grimm stuff, just...stuff, ordinary stuff. I guess I want to know your past a little more too. And I know you find it difficult to talk about and I just can't imagine what it was like so... I thought looking at some photographs might help.

The following morning Sean is in his office, the sun coming through the windows. He's working with his jacket off, tie very slightly loosened. Even the precinct seems lighter, warmer these days. He worries though when Nick is out of his sight - worries about Wesen and traffic and humans with guns. Worries just a tiny bit that Nick will meet someone, someone less bound by the past, someone who hasn't done all the things he's done. He reaches for his phone, makes a call, then another. He loves Nick, couldn't bear to lose him now. So it's up to him to make sure that never happens.

*******

A couple of weeks pass and Nick doesn't mention photographs again. Sean waits for the right moment and it comes, of course, when they are lying together in bed, warm and satisfied. Nick is in Sean's arms, his beard tickling Sean's chest. Sean likes the new beard - for many reasons - strokes his fingers through the silky hair and brushes his thumb against Nick's lips, feels the kiss against his hand.  
"I have a present for you."  
Sean reaches across with a long arm, grabs the box from the dresser by the bed. It's not a big box but a lot of work has gone into it.  
"What is it?"  
"Open it and see."

The photographs have come from round the world: contacts in Austria, old allies in Russia and France, a high school classmate tracked down, a police academy archive. Sean in a cadet's blue uniform, serious and surprisingly young. A picture from a high school yearbook showing a tall teenager, the strong lines of his face already clear but not yet quite sure what to do with his arms and legs. A baby, wrapped in a white shawl. A small child, dressed in a suit and stiff shirt at a minor Royal event. Nick's instant favorite though is one of Sean aged four or so. It must have been taken on some trip away from Kronenburg: he's been in the sun, his skin sun-tanned, gaze solemn but his blond curls wild. Nick loves the curls, says they more than equal the Ewok pajamas. They talk for a long time, smile together at the images, finally fall asleep with the picture of child-Sean propped up against the lamp where Nick can see it as soon as he wakes.

It's two days later as they're driving home from the Spice Shop that Nick suddenly tells Sean to take a different route, directs him to a small store on the edge of the Pearl. Sean looks up at the business name, the display of framed photographs in the window.  
"A photographer's studio? Why are we here?"  
You got those photos for me - those pictures of you. And now I want to give you a photograph. One of us together. So that you never doubt it, never doubt me and that I love you, even when I'm not with you."

*********

The photograph stands on his desk in the plain dark frame Nick chose. They are standing together, both looking out of the picture. Nick's arms are round his waist, his arms are around Nick's arms, hands resting agains Nick's back. They both look serious, just the slightest of smiles, and their heads are resting together. There will be many more photographs of them together over the years but this one will always have its special place. And whenever Sean looks at it he knows - without a doubt - that Nick loves him. And he loves Nick. Even if he did once have Ewok pajamas. 

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired (of course) by the photo of Sasha and David at the Jibland convention.


End file.
